Whoopi Goldberg paid tribute to her old friend Malcolm-Jamal Warner during a solemn moment on The View today.
Initially reading a prepared statement, Goldberg paused and sighed before moving into a more personal tribute.
“We were devastated to hear that Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned while vacationing in Costa Rica,” Goldberg began. “He was just 54 years old. He first became a pop culture icon as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. And generations of Americans are feeling this loss because he was like everybody’s brother.”
Here, an emotional Goldberg took a deep breath. “He was really a great kid. I knew him well, I mean, it just…You know, the person who [broke the news to her] sent me a note that said, this is why what you did on Friday matters, and that is something that I will impart to you all. Because our lives move so quickly and we can disappear at any second, do not let much time pass before you say to your loved ones, hey, I’m thinking of you or hey, how you doing? Make sure you contact somebody today and reach out.”
Goldberg’s co-host Sunny Hostin also paid tribute. “I knew him also – I dated his friend – and he was always so nice to me. He didn’t behave the way I thought movie stars or television stars would behave. He was very welcoming to this kind of outsider.”
Hostin, a lawyer, also praised The Cosby Show. “I think [Warner’s death] was so shocking because of the place that he had in pop culture for African Americans. I remember growing up and watching this family as a kid from the South Bronx projects, watching a Black doctor and Black lawyer married to each other living in a beautiful Brooklyn townhouse. And for me, it became something that was a possibility. That depiction, I think, was an overdue corrective against these harmful stereotypes of the Black community that existed for so very long, and he was just such a crucial part of it, especially I think for young Black men.”
